SONNEL ADVENTURE: "A Monster Within"

[Drawkland]

SONNEL ADVENTURE
"A Monster Within"

Welcome to the next iteration of a Sonnelian roleplay thread. Let's hope to God we can actually finish a plotline before something making it crash and burn! All the sections of this story are linked below. I, as previously, will be leading the RP and driving the plot.

This thread is open to these certain Sonnel nations: Drawkland, Mushcap, Oteshknir, Xhayparia, and Deadswitch. Any other Sonnelian nations are free to join, just let me know if you're interested so I can find a way to work you in. If you are not a nation residing in Sonnel, tough beans. This roleplay thread is for Sonnel nations only. If you aren't but really want to RP on this for some reason, make a nation for Sonnel or talk to me and maybe we can find a way. Any unwarranted posts will be ignored and maybe reported as spam.

Please keep all posts on this thread to just RP. Any offhand or aside comments should be directed to the #canon-planning channel on the Discord. Discussion will be on the server as well if need be.

Character Info Reference

Iarocav
Nation: Drawkland
Age: 5364
Physical Qualities: Stands at about 7'8", with slightly pale skin and jet black hair, generally held loose and a bit past the ears, but clean-shaven. Skinny but wiry in build, he generally wears a sporty polo and slacks with athletic wear underneath. Obviously, the outfit changes with the occasion.
Weapon of Choice: Asciflux, a double-headed battleaxe. Not only a weapon smithed with nearly-indestructible mineral with utmost precision, but one that can absorb, hold, and release magical or normal energy at the command of the user.
Natural/Nonmagic Abilities: Iarocav regularly stays in shape and has above-average endurance and strength for a Drawkian.
Innate Magic/Special Powers: Early in his life, he completed the gauntlet of challenges to become a Triconad immortal, meaning he is immortal and regeneratively invulnerable to everything except for Triconite obsidian or lava, obtained in only volcano in Tisofah. With this immortality came the ability to act with nearly instantaneous speed, but only in short bursts with a long recharge time. He's also skilled in elemental and aural magics such as light, fire, electricity, and void. As previously mentioned, he can also absorb other magic types with his axe and use them himself for a short time. He has a few magical items at his disposal, such as teleportation pearl-marbles, or armor that can materialize around him provided enough time to solidify it with aural magic.
Other Notes:While nothing but Triconite can permanently harm or kill Iarocav, normal means of harming/killing can incapacitate him for a certain amount of time proportional to the amount of damage and how long it takes to regenerate.

Paceman
Nation: Mushcap
Age: ~7,500 Mushcap years
Physical qualities: Paceman stands at 6’5” and wears a brown trench coat. He sports long hair that reaches the top of his shoulders and a full-medium length beard.
Weapon of Choice: Mhu’shuum, a powerful sword with high destructive power, and grows in power alongside Paceman. It cannot be lifted by anyone other than Paceman, unless he is willingly letting them wield it.
Natural/Nonmagic abilities: immunity to the flesh eating spores native to Mushcap and slightly higher than average resistance to disease like any other Shrooman.
Inate Magic/Special Powers: Paceman has access to five creator blessings, each providing him with their own unique set of powers and a general boost in power and speed while each are active. The blessings include
Life: Allows for basic fungalmancy powers, a healing factor, and a very primitive form of shape shifting. Provides Paceman with a Green, flowing Aura.
Science: Grants a large boost in speed, not only in his actions, but in the way his powers work. Provides Paceman with a yellowish-orange energetic Aura.
Space: Grants a large boost to durability and attack power, and allows Paceman to perform a multitude of side abilities like teleportation, portal creation, and item summoning. Changes the texture of Paceman’s skin and clothes to that of Space, it’s intensity will depend on how much of the blessing he is using.
Knowledge: Grants Paceman increased intelligence and focus (which also allows him to mentally process the speeds he can reach with the science blessing), as well as the ability to fly. Provides Paceman with a clear, smoothly defied Aura.
Sentience: allows Paceman to block one single power from an opponent, preventing that opponent from using it for however long it is being blocked. The blocked power will be unblocked once Paceman deactivates the blessing or blocks a different power/someone else. Chunks of Paceman’s body will randomly float off of him as if he were a gas, this does not hurt him and is purely for effect, the removed parts come back instantly.
Other notes: The more blessings that are being used at a time, the more of a toll it puts on Paceman’s body and soul. He cannot use all five for more than an hour without collapsing.
Paceman can also use only a percentage of a blessing, I.e. if he wants to teleport somewhere, he does not need to activate the entirety of the Space blessing, but rather, only about 1-10% depending on how far he needs to teleport.

Runa Bevroren
Nation: Xhayparia
Physical Qualities: slender build, not buff but not fat, long white hair, slicked back with 2 black scaly horns sprouting from his temple. Gold eyes with a black slit as a pupil.
Weapon of Choice: Eboni & Ibori (small scythes)
Natural/Nonmagic Abilities: Natural camoflauge, resistance to black and dark magic, natural speed
Innate Magic/Special Powers: Shadow and Black magic, weapon summoning and sheathing through tattoos on left and right arms
Other Notes: TOENDRA LIVES BITCHES

Acathar Illumtherin
Nation: Oteshknir
Age: B̽̆̚oͧ̎̓t̉ͦ̍h̃̓̿ ͋̌̓fͭ́̐iͤ̂̿n͛͛̇i͋ͤ̈́t̊ͤͪeͨ́͐ ̏̄̅ȁ̎͗n̂̅̎d̽̈͛ ͩ̈́̈i͚͉ͅn̗̺͘fͫͣ̀i̙̿͠n̉ͫi̿͋̂t́͛̾eͥ̒ͣ
Physical Qualities: Appearance of a middle aged man with long black hair and beard with pale/white skin. Wears hooded, gold trimmed dark green robes. Average height and build. Eye color changes each time you view him.
Weapon of Choice: Typically uses magic, though experienced with firearms and blades.
Natural/Nonmagic Abilities: Immortality (not invulnerability, he can be killed but does not die of natural causes)
Innate Magic/Special Powers: Complete mastery in spacetime magic, as well as being highly skilled in all other magical fields. Can create micro black holes, pocket dimensions, and phase through solid objects with ease, as well as selectively stop time in small areas, such as freezing projectiles in time, though the area of effect rarely exceeds a few feet. As a result of the incident that gave him immortality, he has vague intuitions about future events. These are typically nondescript and lack any explicit meaning, though they can be deciphered if heavily reflected upon.
Other Notes: Aside from the other three leaders of Oteshnkir, there is only one Acathar Illumtherin across every timeline and reality.

Ztanlye
Nation: Deadswitch
Physical Qualities: Average-looking Switchian human, but always fully covered in dark tactical armor and pants. He also usually wears a military helmet (due to light sensitivity) and gloves.
Weapon of Choice: His hands, which (despite looking like normal hands) are extremely sharp and can cut flesh and other material like extremely sharp knives.
Natural/Nonmagic Abilities: More athletic than the average person.
Innate Magic/Special Powers: The aforementioned hands, as well as small amounts of mind control.
Other Notes: Ztanlye was created by scientists of Deadswitch in a secret space prison, which malfunctioned and crashed. This was partially Ztanlye's doing.

"A Monster Within"

Part 1: Swallowed By Space
Starting Location: Deep Space
A Drawkian cargo ship is travelling through deep space, on a resupply mission to a distant colony on another star system. With no warning, the ship disappears. Wiped from all sensors, not even simple radio signals can locate any objects in the area it disappeared. This ship managed to release one final distress signal before disappearing ... but will it reach its destination?

Part 2: Going In Blind
Starting Location: Deep Space
The Quick Shot fleet, manned by our fearless heroes, has come face to face with the malevolent force that destroyed the lone Drawkian ship. What is this force, and what is its intent? We will soon find out ...

[Drawkland]

"Swallowed By Space"

---

Deep Space

The D.S.F. Mariner, a Drawkian cargo transport ship, was hurtling through the reaches of deep space. In this age of colonies in adjacent star systems, transport ships regularly traversed the massive gaps between stars to maintain a solid supply line to the colonies. While most colonies were relatively self-sufficient, parts for repair, upgrades to communication and transport systems, and other nonessential items needed to be brought in consistently.

The crew of the Mariner were a small but tight group. Cargo runs were done constantly, and generally a fleet of about a dozen ships serviced each far-off system's colonies. Right now the Mariner was in what the space sailors would call "The Deep" ... the huge expanse of deep and dark space between stars. Drawkland, nor any other Sonnelian nation, had yet managed to engineer faster-that-light travel, so The Deep generally meant a week-long stretch of little to do besides check to make sure the ship was on course every few hours and pass the time.

The captain of the Mariner, Bert Michel, was the only one awake in the cramped bridge at this point. With no normal planetary cycle to clock with, the sailors would use an algorithm to make sure everybody got a healthy amount of sleep while making sure there was enough people to operate the ship at any time. Right now, most of the dozen-man crew were sleeping. The main engineer, Eric Lewis, was down near the engine room making sure everything was up to snuff, and the inventory manager Felicity Pascall was down in the cargo hold. The ship could easily run on auto, but every ship had to be manned in case something went wrong.

Presently, Bert was talking on the ship comms with Eric and Felicity.

"Anyway, that's how I got banned from that bar in Madmania. They said if they ever saw me again they'd toss me off the island!"

"Ahhh, that's all a load of shit, Bert. That kinda shit is so common in Madmania I think they require that to graduate high school."

"Have you ever even been to Madmania, Bert? I know I haven't."

"Yeah, I have, and I'm not bullshitting you. That actually happened to me."

"Sure, I bet you'd testify it in court. Say, we have an update on the course?"

"Let me see." Bert looked over at one of the monitors and checked the ETA. "Yeah, says we're at 3 days, 11 hours until system entry."

"Wasn't it 3 days 12 hours like yesterday? God I hate The Deep."

"Part of the job description, hun, get used to it."

Bert chuckled, but then squinted at the monitor, which just flashed red. "Hold on guys, look like we have something on our radar. Some sort of obstruction."

"Quit lying Bert, there's nothing except dust and satellites a million miles in any direction from here."

"No shit, Eric. Something huge is on the radar. I can see it right here." Bert tapped on the radar monitor, but nothing changed. He craned his neck out the viewport on the bridge but couldn't see anything.

"Maybe the radar is malfunctioning. You know this old ship, bless her heart, has seen better days."

"I don't think so, the monitor doesn't seem to be glitchi-" Bert suddenly got cut off, as the ship starting rumbling and vibrating rapidly.

"What the hell was that?" Eric yelled from the other end of the comm, clearly alarmed this time.

"I don't know, I'm telling you something is-" Bert's response fell on dead ears. The whole ship jolted, and all the electronics went off immediately with a quiet buzz. "- right in front of us."

Luckily, Drawkian ships like this were fitted with analog protocol to keep the ship running, even if hit with something along the lines of an EMP. Bert shot up from his seat to pull the lever to activate the protocol. A few moments later, Eric came barreling through the door of the bridge.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" he exclaimed, and Bert merely shrugged. Both of them looked out the viewport, their only shot at seeing what could be behind the sudden jolt. For a moment, they could see nothing, only the infinite blackness of space. A moment later, a massive dark shape loomed over the Mariner.

"Oh my God." Bert quietly murmured with horror. Both the men stood, almost frozen in fear and confusion, before Bert realized he should hit the distress signal. He jolted away from the viewport, and ran to the other side of the bridge, before realizing the normal distress button was inoperable from the EMP blast. He muttered curses and ran out of the bridge. In the back of the ship, there was an emergency distress button in a Faraday Box that could send a signal in situations like these.

Bert sprinted down the corridors. He ran into Felicity on the way there, and didn't even bother saying sorry as she protested. The ship continued to rumble and shake as he ran, buckling him to his feet several times. It took about a minute of fully running down the stairs and hallways before he got to the back of the cargo hold where the Panic Box, as it was called, was located.

"Finally," Bert whispered, as he quickly began opening the box to operate it. As he worked, a horrible creaking and crunching sound could be heard from the front of the ship. He could faintly hear yelling and screaming from Eric and Felicity. He didn't even know if the others would wake in time. For a brief moment, as he finally turned on the small machine, he had a horrifying sense of his own mortality. He didn't know if he would die ... but he felt an innate sense of dread. A much louder and closer crunch jolted him back to his senses, and he slammed his fist on the distress button. It blinked for a few seconds, before lighting up blue. The signal had been sent. He felt a thump behind him, and heard some sort of hissing sound. Then everything went black.

---

Metropolon, Drawkland

Several hours later, the (still confidential) news arrived in the office of Iarocav. The time it had taken the signal to be sent, detected, decoded, and relayed had taken a bit, but it was as fast as it could be. The Drawkian Space Force commander Anton Merritt, Secretary of Defense Rachel Graham, and Iarocav's son Lerocav were all present in the room. Merritt placed the small packet on the desk, and Iarocav picked it up. He took a minute to read it, then placed it back on the desk. He eyed the 3 assembled in the room with a troubled gaze.

"So what does this mean? You two are the warmongers here," he said, referring to the DSF commander and Secretary of Defense, "I assume you think this is some sort of threat?"

"I believe it's obvious, sir," Merritt spoke up, "This innocent cargo ship suddenly goes off the radar with only one little distress signal, which, I'm sure you read, was sent from a Panic Box. This is no ordinary ship malfunction."

"I seem to remember ships have power supply problems before," Iarocav responded shortly, "I don't want to overreact and spend unnecessary time and money on what could be a non-issue."

"Well, the communication relay satellites we have running through that area of deep space have been sending out signals all day since we received the news, and we've received nothing in return." Graham chimed in. "Not even simple ping signals get a response. Usually those return a signal of some sort when they hit something solid, but they've hit nothing."

"You both are telling me this ship was what, just swallowed by space?" Iarocav said incredulously. "Surely if it were attack, our ping signals would be hitting the insurgent ship?"

The two military officials glanced at each other nervously. "That's the thing, sir," Graham said after a moment, "We believe this was an attack by a much higher power than anything we know. Perhaps anything from our home galaxy. To remove a ship so completely, and not leave any trace themselves, is something we can't even comprehend. I hesitate to call it divine in nature, but that's almost what it seems like."

"That's enough. I will ponder this and let you know of my decision. You are both dismissed." Iarocav gave his son a knowing glance that he should stay in the room. Once the door closed and the two had left, Lerocav moved from being quietly standing in the back of the room to standing over top his father's desk.

"Hey, what is with that back there?" Lerocav asked, almost angrily, "You're just gonna brush that off? This could be ridiculously dangerous for all of us. And you're just gonna sit there and act skeptical? You of all people shouldn't be the one dismissing strange events as minor."

Iarocav waved his hands and stood up from his chair. "Settle down, settle down. Something I've learned over the years is that when I get uneasy about something, it sends everyone else into mass hysteria. Maintaining this act is the easiest way to make sure everything stays orderly around here."

"Okay, fine," Lerocav said after a moment. Iarocav began walking to the back door of the officer, and Lerocav followed, "So then what is actually happening here? How do you actually feel about this?"

Iarocav stopped as he opened the door, and turned to his son. "We'll have to call in the Leaders."

Lerocav nodded after a moment, and followed his father through the door. He swallowed the hard spot in his throat. This was not going to be good.

---

Centivar County, Drawkland

Under an hour later, Iarocav and Lerocav were at Iarocav's Manor in Centivar County, the area of Drawkland where many important figures and celebrities owned large houses in the mountainous and forested area halfway between Drawk City and Metropolon. Meliauden was out somewhere, not in the house. The father and son were gathered in the holo conference room in the manor.

Iarocav took a moment of fiddling and then activated the call. The table was large enough to hold over a dozen people/holographic projections of people, but only a half dozen were likely to be filled. The call had pinged Paceman of Mushcap, Runa of Xhayparia, and Illumtherin of Oteshknir. As the machine quietly purred, Iarocav sat and stared at it, deep in thought.

[Mushcap]

Origin Manor, Mushcap

Paceman had just returned from an exhausting day, endless amounts of paperwork and arguing with the Lord commanders takes it's toll on anyone. Paceman had always had a very active role in his Country, only ever leaving it to run itself when it was in danger. As he sat down on his couch, he took a moment to finally relax. Paceman's children had all been playing, save for his newest: Sirawoman, who was napping in the bedroom with her mother. It's been a long time since Paceman had the privilege of a family, nearly 2000 years in fact; the entire situation was almost surreal to him.

Before long, the holo-caller embedded inside of his table had begun to ring, and it's screen displayed Iarocav's name and profile. Iarocav had called every now and then, but almost never with the holo-caller, he always reserved that for emergencies or very important events.

Before paceman could accept the call, Sainman had walked into the room, covered in grime and oil, he looked as if he had been living inside of some old machinery for a day. "What on Mushcap have you been working on to be absolutely covered like that?" Paceman questioned his apprentice. Sainman had a pause before he answered, as he noticed the holo-caller ringing, which he also understood the importance of. "W-well, I was trying to implement a sort of repair gel into my shield, in case I need to... well... repair something." Sainman explained. "That doesn't answer why you have oil and grime all over you, but you're eventually going to run out of space to implement things into that shield." Paceman remarked, as he finally answered the Holo-caller.

"Iarocav my old friend! It's been some time has it not? Did you ever resolve that Talcent garbage moon situation?" Paceman jovially asked the leader before he sat up and adjusted his tone. "Sadly though, I assume this isn't a social call, am I right?"

[Oteshknir]

Acather Illumtherin sat - well, floated - cross legged above the pale grey floor of the unnaturally dark expanse of where could only be described as absolutely Nowhere. It was completely silent, perfect for meditating on the days visions. Dozens of notebooks lay strewn about around him, illuminated by some unknown light source, filled with jumbled notes and sketches of things he has seen within his mind over recent months. He had a strange feeling looming over him for some time, like something very bad would happen soon. Every small detail he could envision he would record, however nothing made sense. Everything was small. Insignificant. Unrelated. The only major things he had been able to make out were some type of space vessel... and some large object... and beeping... wait, beeping?

Illumtherin fell to the ground, his focus broken by the beeping of the handheld holo-caller in his pocket. He stood up while rummaging around in his robe to answer the incoming call, Nowhere folding into itself around him as reality unfolded, leaving him standing in the study of his tower in Merinfain. A man in blue and red robes sat quietly in the corner, hood obscuring the top half of his face as he intently studied some of the Grandmaster's notes. Acathar pulled the holo-caller out of his pocket and set it down on a nearby table. He did not appear the least bit surprised that the call was from Iarocav, despite having not spoken in quite some time.

"Iarocav! It is good to see a friendly face, despite these dark times that lie ahead. Am I correct in assuming that you have called to shed some light on them?"

[Xhayparia]

Chrysellia Palace, Rhaskayn, Xhayparia

A large, dark corridor, centre of which sat Runa Bevroren, Xhayparia's benefactor, deep in a coma-like sleep.

A light pulsed from the distance. Sort of like a heartbeat. The silence slowly gaining volume from the distance, as if something moved closer to Runa's subconscious. A sudden, bright light flashed to the Heavens and back, practically blinding all withing the blast radius. At the core of the rumble, levitated an ink-like sphere, metamorphosing into various indescribable shapes, seemly staring back through Runa's mind.

"W̵̰̉͘į̵̺̂̑̀l̵̳̥͈̀́l̴̻̓̎̽ ̷̻̺͗̈́͒ȳ̸̳̿̕ö̷̥̜̥́̀ư̷͓ ̸̱̪̆́ṗ̴̝̆͐r̴̎͊̄͜ǫ̶͍́͒͘v̷̰̋e̴̢͖̭͌ ̷̧̤̈́́͑w̷͔̓̎͠o̴̼̾r̵̡̈́t̶̼͇̄̀̚h̶̠͕̯́y̶̗͓̪͑̕?̶̪̣̅̐̓ͅ"

Runa gasped as he awoke, breathing extremely heavily, clinging on to his newly reawakened consciousness.

"Father! Are you alright?" shouted Azalea, Runa's first-born daughter. "I've told you if you do that too much, you'll develop mental sickness!"

"Silly child," Runa responded, "Your mind needs periodical cleansing, I simply...over-wash? Regardless, skip a healthy concentration too much, and you'll end up with the mindset of the rogue wench who's causing trouble on Talcent."

Ring, ring~ sounded the holo-caller, a device given to him by Iarocav of Drawkland should their cooperation be necessary.

It's been quite some time... Runa thoughht to himself as he reached for the communicator.

"To what occasion may I give thanks for this sudden call, my dear friend?" Runa began, before noticing the other connected lines originating from Mushcap and Oteshknir.

"...A gathering. You wouldn't contact all of us at once like this unless it were some emergency." Runa assumed.

Runa waved his hand to Azalea. "Leave me, daughter. This doesn't concern you."

"Ugh, fine.." retorted Azalea. I never get to be involved... she thought to herself.

[Drawkland]

Centivar County, Drawkland

Iarocav greeted each leader in turn as they signed on to the call. Once Runa had signed on, Iarocav stood up from his seat and motioned for Lerocav to close the door. Lerocav moved to the end of the room and Iarocav cleared his throat.

"Everyone, it appears I have somewhat dire news on my hands. Late last night Drawkian time, some ... thing intercepted a routine Drawkian cargo ship in deep space."

Lerocav returned to the table and spoke up, "The ship was completely destroyed without a trace. Our tracking and detection systems have completely lost it, we can't even find inert objects in the area. To make matters worse, one of the communication relay satellites we have in the area has similarly disappeared."

"This is the issue," Iarocav affirmed, "We have an unknown, likely malevolent force, that has just completely swallowed up a peaceful Sonnelian craft, with no warning and barely an emergency signal reaching us before our ship disappeared."

"So essentially, we have a threat, appearing to be heading in our direction, that we do not know or comprehend. Our scanners cannot detect anything, so we have no way of telling what it is," Lerocav added.

The pair of Drawkians stood silent for a moment, allowing the information to sink in for the trio of holographic leaders standing before them.

"I regret the fact that I must do this, but at this point in time, I must ask you all for your aid in me and my people's time of need. This could very easily become dangerous for not just Drawkland but the whole of Sonnel. I don't know the power of what we may be facing, but I'm assuming it's great. Far greater than just me and my family's power. I believe that only with our powers and cunning together will we be able to defeat whatever force we may be facing."

Iarocav finished his small pseudo-speech and looked each leader in the eyes. He didn't know whether they'd ask anything else or if they'd just immediately promise to help, so he waited expectantly.

[Mushcap]

Paceman silently pondered the question, usually when they worked as a group, it was some clearly defined entity they had to face, almost as if it was the final boss in a game, but not here, it’s just the unknown.

Finally, Paceman spoke up. “I’ll help. You’re an old friend after all, and I can just put in a notice of temporary leave so the country doesn’t fall apart without me.”

Paceman turned to face his disciple. “Would you mind going ahead and setting that in motion?”
Sainman nodded his head and quickly jogged off to put in the notice that Paceman would be unavailable for the foreseeable future.

Once Sainman had left the room, Paceman once again turned to the Holo-caller. “Where are we meeting?”

[Xhayparia]

Runa didn't know what to think about the situation.

"An unknown entity, out in the deep parts of space, attacking passive cargo ships. The situation is, indeed, dire. However, the outskirts of the endless vacuum of space is unknown in itself for the most part. Do we have any other sort of information, such as the ship's course to and from-"

An interruption spewed in the room, a scientist sprinting towards Runa, with Azalea running after him, as if to stop him.

"Lord Lieutenant, sir!" he sprouted, huffing and puffing as he grasped for air.

"I...tried...to stop him..." coughed Azalea.

"Sir, we have trouble, we detected an abnormality in the infrastructure of one of our core surveillance satellites, so when we went to check it out, all we saw was... a large... thing engulfing it, then next thing we know, all signals from a 3500 kilometre range suddenly... disappeared."

Runa, silently nodding to the scientist, waving for him to leave, turned back to the holo-caller.

"Sounds like this issue isn't exclusive to Iarocav. We will need to send word to all governments in the sector to check their communications. As for the 4 of us, I second Paceman's question."

[Oteshknir]

Illumtherin silently thought about the situation. A Drawkian cargo ship vanishes without a trace, fearing the worst, Iarocav assembles the leaders, and nobody knows anything about what happened? It could be something as trivial as faulty sensors failing to detect a stranded ship to something as dire as reality itself ceasing to exist. Taking the leaders of some of the system's most influential nations to face whatever this is head on bearing next to no knowledge of what they're even facing seems... unwise.

Then again, the Drawkian leader isn't one for making rash decisions. There may be something more going on here than he had led on. And if this is the case, then the situation is indeed dire.

Finally, he spoke "I can't pretend to fully understand why this requires our combined efforts, but I will help you nevertheless. I will have the equipment I need prepared when the four of us are ready." He nodded to the man in the blue and red robes, who stood and walked out of the room.

Something in the back of the wizard's mind felt... strange. The feeling that has been hovering over him in the past months is getting stronger.

[Drawkland]

As each leader gave their assent and questioning to the situation, Iarocav nodded gravely. When Pacemen asked where they were meeting and Runa seconded it, he decided to speak up. For the moment he ignored Illumtherin's remark about the use of all the leaders at once, deciding he may get to that later.

"I have assembled a small strike force of Drawkian ships, code named 'Quick Shot'. It's a fleet of about a half-dozen small ships fitted out with various weaponry. My intention is to have a force with the power to reasonably face an adversary, but small enough so that, if things go dire, the casualties are not too great. I know this may seem a little too cautious, but I am bringing us all together for this as insurance. If things go extremely awry, it likely will be important for our combined powers to be in use to prevent a greater tragedy occurring. This also is a good way for us all to be able to fully assess the threat at the same time, rather than having to relay information to each other."

Iarocav rested a moment, and Lerocav spoke up, "Trust me in this, Iarocav wouldn't be calling you all in right now if he thought he or I could handle this ourselves. You know he doesn't call this in lightly."

"Indeed," Iarocav replied, "And thus we better get going as soon as possible. Paceman, being closest to Drawkland, I expect to teleport here as soon as he can. Runa can also shadowwalk here I believe. The Quick Shot fleet is currently being assembled and briefed. By the time Paceman and Runa gets here they'll nearly be ready. Since we have to fly out of our solar system, my thought was that we pick up Illumtherin in Oteshknir and into deep space where we believe the disturbance is from there." As he spoke, Iarocav pressed a few buttons to show the possible trajectory and route taken by the fleet.

[Mushcap]

Paceman nodded at Iarocav's information, "Very well, i'll be there in an instant then. Just give me time to make some preparations." Paceman informed the leaders as he shut off the Holo-caller and took a deep breath. Something loomed in the back of his head, but he wasn't sure what.

Paceman rose from the couch and made his way to the bedroom, where his wife Night and infant Sira were sleeping. They were sound asleep, and nothing was important enough to wake them right now. Paceman bent down to give them both a kiss on the forehead, to which Night responded with a slight stretch and indeterminable noises implying she wanted Pace to join her, which Paceman did not reply to.

As Paceman exited the bedroom, he made a quick stop past Sainman, who was issuing the notice about Paceman's temporary leave of absence. "Sainman, let the rest of the kits know i'll be gone for a short while. Ill be back soon." Paceman requested his apprentice.

Sainman nodded to this request, and gave an affirmative "Yes sir." in response.

Paceman smiled, and teleported straight to Drawkland, right next to Iarocav even. Mei's Blessing could allow for the faint sensing of energy, which made teleporting to specific people much easier.
"Im ready to go my old friend."

[Xhayparia]

Runa seconded Paceman's response.

"Aye, godspeed." He spoke.

"AZALEA!"

Azalea woke from her daydream, startled. She audibly made a yelping noise in reaction, which could only be described as the onomatopoeia of an !

"YES, FATHER?!"

"Keep my throne warm, I'll be home on the morrow."

"Yes, father."

"Also, call your mother and tell her where I'll be. Do not make any official decisions without her approval, nor the Hex. You know how much of a 'holier-than-thou' type she can be in political decisions." Runa scolded.

Azalea saluted, "yes, Lord Lieutenant!"

Runa giggled and patted Azalea's head.

"Bye-bye, daughter.." Runa began as he walked out the door, fetching his coat. "and, erm, I love you." he nervously spit out.

He usually didn't talk so casually to Azalea.

I guess he's finally getting used to being a father more than Lord Lieutenant. It's about time. Azalea thought to herself.

Runa closed his eyes, his black horns glowing a feint violet hue. He opened his eyes, and uttered a singular word:
"Retropelet"
Runa vanished into the shadows, signifying his leave with a thick vapour left behind.

[Drawkland]

As Paceman and Runa left the call, Iarocav looked to Illumtherin, the last left on the call.

"We'll get into contact with you when the fleet gets underway. I'm sure you'll be prepared once the time comes. See you soon, friend," Iarocav said, and Lerocav shut off the holocaller.

Within moments, Paceman apparated next to Iarocav, and the Drawkionel greeted him in turn.

"I'm sure Runa will be here any moment, Paceman, and we'll get underway." Iarocav specified. "Meanwhile, Lerocav, I need you to make the necessary preparations back here at home. Make sure all the personal emergency items are in place, and once that's finished, get to the military quarters to ensure nobody loses their mind. They need the sound judgement of one like you to make sure they don't overreact without me to hold them back."

"Of course!" Lerocav smiled, "Wouldn't want them locking down the country for no reason just because your comms get jammed!"

"Exactly, my son." Iarocav responded with a warm smile of his own. He got up from his seat and motioned to the next room for Paceman and Lerocav.

"Let's make our way to the garage so we can head back to the military complex where the fleet is being assembled as soon as Runa arrives."

[Xhayparia]

A black mist sprouted and condensed from Iarocav's shadow, solidifying into Runa.

I wish doing that wasn't so...flashy.

"Hello, gentlemen, I see I'm slightly late, did I miss anything?"

[Drawkland]

Out of the corner of Iarocav's eye, Runa suddenly solidified. Iarocav turned and smiled at him, and responded to him.

"Not late at all, we were just about to leave and meet the fleet. Feel free to join us," he said, opening the door to his garage. The trio entered a small, sporty car, and Iarocav set the destination to the classified area where the fleet was being assembled.

Within less than an hour, the trio arrived at the fleet, and Iarocav led them to the capital ship. There were seven ships in total in the landing pad. They were all identical, smallish ships that contain a crew of a few dozen at most. Weapons were present but concealed on the exterior, to give the illusion of completely defenseless diplomacy ships. They still packed a punch.

The only different ship of the septet was the capital ship, which was a little larger, and outfitted a few more features. By the time the trio of leaders had gotten there, the ships were all packed up and ready to roll. Iarocav exchanged a few words with the military admiral on the ground, then led the other two leaders up the ramp into the capital ship. Moments later, as they were settled on the bridge, the fleet took off in formation, and quickly exited the atmosphere.

Within a couple hours, the fleet had entered Talcent airspace. The nearest landing area on Oteshknir to Illumtherin was blocked at the moment, so the airspace controllers had told the fleet to remain outside the moon's orbit for a bit of time until it was cleared.

Iarocav was frustrated at this, obviously. "How is there someone blocking this landing area? I'm sure Illumtherin told the staff to make sure it was open for our arrival, right? We can't afford to waste time and fuel like this," he vented to the others.

Meanwhile, the fleet had come in low orbit above the trash planet Purgamentum awaiting the all-clear to fly into Oteshknir.

[Oteshknir]

Illumtherin and the hooded man headed for the landing area nearest the tower. It had been cleared to make way for the larger Drawkian vessel, all but for one small ship.

"Apologies Grandmaster," said an airfield worker who had run up to greet them. "Engine trouble, it wont lift off." The grandmaster sighed, "Iarocav cant be happy about this." The wizard closed his eyes, and a sizable chunk of earth rose from out of the water. The stalled ship floated off of the landing pad and onto the newly formed land. The wizard opened his eyes. "That should do it. Iarocav," he spoke into a device on his wrist "A ship had engine trouble on the landing pad, you're clear for touchdown."

Once the Drawkian Capital ship touched down, Illumtherin bid the hooded man goodbye and boarded the vessel.

[Drawkland]

Iarocav and the others greeted Illumtherin as he boarded the capital ship of the fleet. It lifted off soon after, and the rest of Quick Shot flew away from Talcent and shifted gears to zoom into deep space. A small journey would await them.

"Going in Blind"

Several hours passed with relatively no action. The leaders conversed among themselves and with other personnel on the bridge of the capital ship. The fleet was heading along the line of the signal relay satellites where several had gone down already to the unknown force.

Eventually the captain of the ship called for a slowdown on the ship's thrust. The rest of the fleet followed suit. Iarocav looked up to the captain.

"Are we approaching the waypoint I suggested?" Iarocav asked.

"Yes, sir," the captain replied, "We're going to hang back a little bit behind it so we have more time to assess a possible threat."

"Good call. What's the ETA on this next relay going down?"

"Any second if the rate stays constant," the first mate responded.

"So now we play the waiting game..." Iarocav said quietly. He stood up from his seat and looked up out of the viewport on the bridge, watching.

[Mushcap]

Paceman had mostly stayed silent during the transport, barring the occasional chat and catching up with the other leaders. Traveling in deep space was odd to him, he was certainly capable, but usually had no need, as almost everything he needed was either somewhere on Sonnel, Mushcap, or somewhere within Trallena; he would teleport to anything else.

One thing did leave Paceman curious, specifically: what were they going to find out here? It’s been on his mind ever since they were summoned. Finally, Paceman broke his silence, and asked the question on everyone’s minds. “What do each of you even think we’re going to find out here?” Paceman questioned. “Personally, I’m optimistic that this is just some sort of bad space storm and not something serious, but my instincts are screaming at me every moment I stay out here.” He continued.

[Drawkland]

At Paceman's inquiry, Iarocav turned to him and gave him a dark, meaningful look. He offered no verbal response, however.

He turned back to stare at the viewport. After another tense moment, a crewmember called out, "The next relay satellite just went down. The anomaly should be visible any moment." Iarocav nodded, not breaking his gaze at the vast darkness.

All of a sudden, the crew began to see movement far in the vast distance. It was some indeterminate blob in the distance, brownish and black in hue. It was moving steadily, getting somewhat larger, but was still pretty far-off.

"What could that possibly be?" Iarocav murmured.

[Drawkland]

The crew remained silent for several minutes. Everybody was curious and enthralled as the object began to grow bigger in the viewport. As it grew closer, Iarocav grimaced. "That has to be some sort of ship. Look, you can make out some lights on its surface. This is no space storm."

A crewmember called out from another part of the bridge. "Sir, it appears to be slightly slowing down in speed."

"Pull the fleet into a defensive position. This thing could be bristling with weapons. It may even have a tractor beam to trap us. I think we need to send some sort of signal to them." Iarocav began thinking aloud almost, giving orders to the crewmates.

"You want us to send a message, sir?" the captain of the ship asked.

"Absolutely. Pull up the holoprojector. I'll record a message and then we'll send it." Iarocav proceeded to dictate a quick messages indicating the fleet came in peace and only wanted to discern the identity of the ship and negotiate if necessary. It was sent along, and another few minutes of tense waiting were had.

Suddenly, all the display screens on the bridge lit up. Iarocav shot a look at the communications officer, who appeared to be confused. Whatever this was, it was being beamed directly to their systems without consent. It was hard to make out what was on the screen, but it looked like a still image of Iarocav from the holorecording being moved from a rough diagram of the fleet to a mass that was clearly meant to represent the ship. There were strange symbols on the screen that couldn't be read, but it was clear what it was saying.

"I think they want me to go onto that ship. I'm assuming they are requesting direct contact." Iarocav looked at the other three leaders with him. "Should I go? Should we go? I don't think it'd be wise to retreat right now ..."

[Oteshknir]

as the mass drew nearer, the lights on the surface of the ship grew brighter, until it was apparent that they were not lights at all, but eyes. As the fleet approached, the brownish and black hue of the mass became illuminated, and revealed it was in fact orange and black fur...

“What the hell is that‽” cried out Illumtherin, when suddenly his head began pounding, and with a splitting headache he heard within his mind, as if it were coming from the creature, “I AM hell, Jon”

For seemingly the first time, the Grandmaster’s mind was blank... for thousands of years, every sensation was a mess of familiarity and deja vu. Everything, he had seen yet could not fully remember. But this... this was new. And it scared him. And yet, it was almost comforting. Feeling normal again. Invigorating even.

"I think they want me to go onto that ship. I'm assuming they are requesting direct contact." Iarocav looked at the other three leaders with him. "Should I go? Should we go? I don't think it'd be wise to retreat right now ..."

“...i’ll go with you” replied the wizard. “For once... I have no idea what will happen. Whether it is good or bad, a surprise is almost welcome to me...”

[Mushcap]

An tense atmosphere filled the air, nobody knew what this ship was and what it was doing. Paceman clenched his fist in anticipation.

"I think they want me to go onto that ship. I'm assuming they are requesting direct contact." Iarocav looked at the other three leaders with him. "Should I go? Should we go? I don't think it'd be wise to retreat right now ..."

“I’m not entirely sure what to do here.” Muttered Paceman. “If we send just one of us then they could easily ambush them if this is a trap, but if we all go, they may see it as a threat. Perhaps one of us should stay behind to make sure Sonnel doesn’t stay in the dark in the event that we disappear like the last ship.” Paceman proposed.

[Xhayparia]

“I’m not entirely sure what to do here.” Muttered Paceman. “If we send just one of us then they could easily ambush them if this is a trap, but if we all go, they may see it as a threat. Perhaps one of us should stay behind to make sure Sonnel doesn’t stay in the dark in the event that we disappear like the last ship.” Paceman proposed.

Runa concurred. "I shall stay behind. I can leap forward with a shadow projection so I can remain 'in-the-loop' so to speak. If anything were to go south, I can send a true account of these events."

Runa's mind raced. On what world does an entity like this exist? Whether known or myth...I must research.

[Drawkland]

Iarocav nodded as each leader spoke. When Runa mentioned using a shadow projection, he furrowed his brow in thought.

"I'm not sure that would be wise. These are clearly very advanced entities ... if they detected that your presence was a projection of sorts they may feel that we are attempting to deceive them, which could turn things sour. I don't think all 4 of us going will be a big issue, I find it unlikely that they're able to know the significance of all of us gathered together."

After another moment to think, he continued. "The projection idea is a good one, though. We will certainly need an avenue of communication with the ships back here, and having one that doesn't rely on easily-disrupted telecommunication is definitely a plus."

Iarocav turned to the first mate of the ship. "Prepare us a shuttle at once. We'll depart as soon as we can."

"Runa, do you think you could demonstrate your shadow projection to the bridge here? I'm assuming we will be brought into the ship to be interrogated or negotiated with in some way. While we're there we should be able to assess the threat level of this entity. I could give you a signal, Runa, and you could project it to the bridge here to inform the crew if they need to retreat, attack, or remain in a defensive position. Sound good?"

[Xhayparia]

"Runa, do you think you could demonstrate your shadow projection to the bridge here? I'm assuming we will be brought into the ship to be interrogated or negotiated with in some way. While we're there we should be able to assess the threat level of this entity. I could give you a signal, Runa, and you could project it to the bridge here to inform the crew if they need to retreat, attack, or remain in a defensive position. Sound good?"

Runa made an expression saying Okay, watch this.

Runa closes his eyes, and the light surrounding him escapes and refracts. Runa's model turns solid pitch black, with his form walking out, leaving behind a shell that looks like Runa.

"There he is. Fake Runa. His speech are my thoughts." Runa stated confidently.

"Kameg ej po." The projection stated.

"I think in Xhay naturally, so I'll try to keep his communications in our shared tongue." Runa noted. "Now, may we depart, soon?"